To call his mate, a male Adélie penguin uses a tried-and-true formula: flap flippers, tilt head to sky, then cut loose with a braying screech of a love song. It’s called an ecstatic call, and among penguins, it’s contagious. “One starts, and pretty soon everyone’s doing it,” said ecologist David Ainley. Ainley, who studies Adélie colonies in Antarctica, worked with a reporting team from WHOI during a 2007 Polar Discovery expedition at Cape Royds on Ross Island. (Note that this penguin is multi-tasking: while calling, he is also incubating an egg.) (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The ocean is becoming more acidic and putting many marine organisms at risk. Join WHOI scientists in Redfield Auditorium on Aug. 8, 6-9 p.m., to learn more about how they are studying this complex challenge to the ocean.